Look below to see what we did today or any day in our Energy Unit.

 

Learning Objective 1 Resources

 

Learning Objective 2 Resources

 

Learning Objective 3 Resources

 

Learning Objective 4 Resources

 

Learning Objective 5 Resources

 

Learning Objective 6 Resources

 

Monday 6/11/18

Work on Learning Objectives

 

Last week of classes! Just to refresh, we will be working until the very end of the week, so stay focused and use your time. Keep going on Learning Objectives. You've got limited time and lots to do. =)

 

Friday 6/8/18

 

No class today due to field trip. 

 

Thursday 6/7/18

Movie time!

 

Today is a repeat of Tuesday. This will be time to work on your LA movies. Use this time wisely, as the Film Fest is coming right up! If you are set on your movie or your role is not needed right now, you can work on LO's or do work for other classes. It is NOT a hang out time, so stay productive!

 

Wednesday 6/6/18

Work on Learning Objectives

 

Another day to focus on LO's. We have many people that have not completed LO2 and LO3, though both of those can be completed in less than a class period. You should be working on LO4 or beyond, if you are on track. Keep focused and use your time wisely!

 

Tuesday 6/5/18

Movie time!

 

Today you get some extra time to work on your LA movies. Use this time wisely, as the Film Fest is coming right up! If you are set on your movie or your role is not needed right now, you can work on LO's or do work for other classes.

 

Monday 6/4/18

Work on Learning Objectives

 

Let's start with a check on work. Friday did not go accordingly to plan, so where is everyone?

 

After that, let's get to work on LO's. There are 10 days of classes left, so definitely not summer yet. There is a lot of work yet to do. Keep focused and keep moving forward!

 

Friday 6/1/18

Work on LO's

 

Today is all LO's all the time!

 

If you haven't finished LO1, you are REALLY behind, so be strategic and get this done. Ask for help, if needed.

 

If you are on LO2 or LO3, they should go pretty quickly. If you take more than a class period for either, then look at yourself and see if you are using class time effectively. These should be done by now. They will be marked as missing on Monday.

 

Finally, if you are on LO4, you are on track. It's a big one, but just break it down. Decide if you are working on maximizing or minimizing heat transfer. Then design something and check it with Mr. Rohlen. You need to have a control of some sort to show if there is a change in heat transfer. If it seems good, build it and test it!

 

Thursday 5/31/18

Work on LO's

 

Let's begin class with a review of where everyone is, what needs to be done, and when there is to do it all. We have two and a half weeks to go, a lots to do. The first four Learning Objectives are required, so using time wisely is critical!

 

If you are ahead, awesome! You can do  more LO's or the work with circuits after LO4. If you are behind, you need to finish LO1-4 or you will be coming in for summer school. LO1 and LO4 are big ones that could take a while. LO2 and LO3 should take a class period or less. With that in mind, there is still plenty of time if people stay focused. Keep plugging!

 

Tuesday and Wednesday 5/29-30/18

No class these two days due to 8th grade trip. Have fun!!

 

Friday 5/25/18

Work on LO's

 

Today is all about working on your Learning Objectives. We haven't since Monday, and we won't again until next Thursday, so make the most of it! If you have not finished LO1, then get that completed! Use the resources provided to make sure you have everything. I still have folks trying to check off without all the required parts, so that is not gong how they want.

 

Have a great class trip next week!

 

Thursday 5/24/18

VTSA!

 

Finishing up! Finish the Vermont Science Assessment strong!!!

 

Wednesday 5/23/18

VTSA!

 

And again! Vermont Science Assessment! Enjoy!

 

Tuesday 5/22/18

VTSA!

 

We are all about the Vermont Science Assessment for the next week!

 

Monday 5/21/18

Work on LO's

Complete any last prep work for the VTSA

 

The majority of class today will be spent on your Learning Objectives. This will be the last big chuck of time for a few days, so really focus and try to get as much completed as possible. You should be done with LO1 by the end of class today. It will be marked as missing tomorrow. Again, if you are waiting to meet with me, go on to the next LO. If you don't get a chance to meet with me in class, come see me outside of class (TA, lunch, silent reading, etc.). That will not be an excuse for it not being completed.

 

The last part of class, we will do a final bit of prep work for the assessment tomorrow. It'll be fun! ;)

 

HW - Finish LO1, if not done.

 

Friday 5/18/18

Finish up the VTSA Practice

Work on LO's

 

We are going to go back to the VTSA practice test today and look at the other questions. Look especially on how it is laid out and organized, so you will be ready next week. It'll be fun! =)

 

With any remaining time, we will work on our LO's. See the notes from yesterday.

 

Thursday 5/17/18

Work on LO's

 

Today, everyone will be working on their Learning Objectives. It is a bit tricky when you can't check in with me, but there is still plenty to do.

 

If you are working on LO1, I met with many people the last 2 days that had NOT checked to make sure that their essay had everything it needed. Use the expectation sheet and the rubric to make sure you have EVERYTHING. Additionally, I saw many essays that had "I think" or "I believe." It's not about you. It's about Enosburg and the research, so get rid of the "I" statements. You should also have other people proofread it. Do a lot of prep work before I return so that you are more likely to be proficient when we meet.

 

If you feel like you are ready to meet, keep working! You can start LO2 or do work for other classes. It is NOT a hangout time.

 

Tomorrow, we will finish up the VTSA thingie. By tomorrow, you should have a very polished draft of LO1 or be even further. If you do not have a final or near final draft ready, then you are behind.

 

Wednesday 5/16/18

Go over question from yesterday

Continue with 2 more questions on VTSA

Work on LO's

 

We will begin with going over the first question on the practice test. We will take a few moments to log back in and get to that question. If you were able to record your answers somewhere, get those out, too. Then we will do it together.

 

After we all understand that question, you will do 2 and 3, again in small groups. Again, if you can, record your answers somewhere.

 

Afterwards, get back to work on LO's. We will talk about the 2 questions tomorrow, then try some more.

 

If you are on track right now, you are either working on a second or third draft, or you have completed LO1. If you do not yet have an initial draft, you are pretty behind. Focus and use your time wisely to get a couple drafts completed.  

 

Again, very few people, if any, are checking off the first try. This means you should not only be ready to do multiple drafts, you should really follow the directions to make sure you have everything.

 

Tuesday 5/15/18

Begin VTSA Practice

Work on LO's

 

For the first part of class today, we are going to do something different. There is a new state test for science, the Vermont Science Assessment (with a creative name!) that we will be taking next week. It is similar in how you take to the SBAC's. Today, we are going to practice signing in, then doing 2 questions in pairs or trios. While you will be working together for this first practice round, you each need to enter answers.

 

Get with a partner or two.

Go to the Air Secure Site site and sign in.

Go to the Student Practice and Training Test.

Unclick Guest User.

The VTSA should pop up.

Go to question 1 and work together to figure out the answer. Answer all the parts to 1. There are several.

Each of you should enter your answer.

 

Afterwards, get back to work on LO's. We will talk about the 2 questions tomorrow, then try some more.

 

At this point, you should not only have a draft completed for LO1, it should have been checked by Mr. Rohlen or another adult at least once.  

 

Very few people, if any, are checking off the first try. This means you should not only be ready to do multiple drafts, you should really follow the directions to make sure you have everything.

 

Monday 5/14/18

Work on LO's

 

You are hopefully finishing up LO1 today or tomorrow. The steps to completion are:

1) Gather info.

2) Write a draft.

3) Using the expectations sheet and rubric, go through and make sure you have everything you are required to have in your project.

4) Have someone else read it and do the corrections. You could do this step a few times to really make it polished.

5) Do your bibliography (EasyBib or Citation Machine) in the correct format.

6) When you feel STRONGLY that you meet the standard, fill out the rubric and your MSS sheet, then meet with Rohlenio.

 

If all is good, then you can go on to LO2. If not, do corrections and come back again. When you start a new LO, start with the appropriate resource page at the top.

 

We will take a break from LO's tomorrow. As stated

 

Friday 5/11/18

Work on LO's

Try to finish LO1 and start LO2

 

As stated yesterday, you are hopefully done with at least a draft of your project now, if not much further. It would be great to finish up today or Monday. Remember, go over it yourself, then have someone else read it, preferably an adult. Again, when you feel strongly that it meets the standard, then fill out the rubric and MSS and come meet with me.

 

For LO2, you can be in onesies or twosies. It should be a quicker LO than the first one. =)

 

Thursday 5/10/18

Understand steps to completion

Work on LO1

 

At this point, you hopefully have a draft of your LO1 persuasive project. Whatever format you are using, don't expect it to be perfect on the first draft. You will need to polish it up and there are a couple good ways to do this.

First, get out the expectations sheet and the rubric. Go through your project and make sure it has EVERYTHING that is required, and hopefully more than that. A few ones I looked at yesterday did not have solutions to the cons for their top choice and that sort of thing. You are trying to convince someone of your choices, so do that! Think about convincing your reader, not just spouting a list of facts.

 

Second, have someone else read it. If you have another adult read it, be sure to bring the expectations sheet, so they know what is required. Of course, I can read it, too, but it doesn't only have to be me. Other adults, other 8th graders and even yourself reading it aloud are all good strategies.

 

When you feel strongly that you have all of the requirements met and it is well presented, fill out the rubric and your MSS, then meet with me. When you are checked off, you can go on to LO2, which should be much quicker.

 

HW - Finish an initial draft, if not done in class.

 

Wednesday 5/9/18

Check in on progress

Work on LO1

 

We will start with a check in around the room. Two questions for each person: What format are you using for your persuasive? What do you need to do to complete this?

 

After we hear from everyone, we will keep on working. A lot of you had GREAT focus yesterday and it shows in how much you got done. Keep it up!

 

Tuesday 5/8/18 

Work on LO1

 

Not much to go over today, just a whole class period to get stuff done. Stay focused and you should make lots of good progress on LO1, your persuasive piece. Let's go!

 

Monday 5/7/18

Understand how geothermal and biomass make electricity, as well as some pros and cons

Go over how your persuasive info can be presented

Back to research chosen methods, including 1st, 2nd and last choices

 

Let's go over the only two we haven't covered yet, geothermal and biomass. Both are steam powered, meaning they boil water to produce steam, and that steam is used to turn the turbine. Geothermal is using the heat from deep in the Earth to boil water. It helps if the crust is thinner, so that drilling doesn't have to go so deep. That's why Iceland uses this method for most of their electricity. It would have to be some deep drilling here in Vermont. Biomass, as we are using it, is a sort of catch all. It is using organic materials or the by-products to boil water. It could be burning wood directly, making methane from manure, or using corn and by-products to burn and create heat. We will go over pros and cons for both.

 

Once you have your focus methods (1st, 2nd and last), you need to research in depth how it works, pros and cons. How can you present this info? There are lots of ways. You just need to try to persuade in your piece and have enough info to do that. It can be an essay, but it could be lots of other methods, too.

 

Now let's get to work! By the way, that was a TON of listening on Friday, so nice work! =)

 

Friday 5/4/18

Understand how coal, natural gas and both types of nuclear are made, as well as some pros and cons

Go over how your persuasive info can be presented

Back to research chosen methods, including 1st, 2nd and last choices

 

We have covered all the ones that don't boil water to use steam to move turbines, so now it's time to cover some of the ones that do use steam.

 

First up, we will cover 2 sort of at once, since they both work the same. However, they have different pros and cons. They both burn to create heat, boiling water. Then the steam from that boiling water is used to turn turbines. Here is a quick visual. Coal is a loaded one, these days. There is a couple big pros, and many cons. Natural gas is the fastest growing of our 9 methods. It is now the second most common source of electricity in the US. Like coal, there are no natural gas plants in Vermont. A big part of natural gas is fracking. Let's take a closer look at fracking here and learn about it. What do you think about it?

 

Next, let's go over the methods and talk about both nuclears, fission and fusion.

 

Conventional nuclear, or nuclear fission, is all about breaking apart atoms for energy.

 

Theoretical nuclear, or nuclear fission, is all about combining atoms and using that energy.

 

 

Once you have your focus methods (1st, 2nd and last), you need to research in depth how it works, pros and cons. How can you present this info? There are lots of ways. You just need to try to persuade in your piece and have enough info to do that. It can be an essay, but it could be lots of other methods, too.

 

OK, to work!

 

Thursday 5/3/18

Understand how hydroelectric and wind electricity is made, as well as some pros and cons

Research chosen methods, including 1st, 2nd and last choices

 

We covered solar in depth yesterday. Today, we will look at hydroelectric and wind in depth. Get your tables out. We will learn a bit more on how they work and go into the pros and cons. Be sure to add to your table if you hear something you don't have.

 

Hydroelectric is using flowing water to create electricity. This video goes over how it works with some of the pros and cons. This video shows how it works a bit better, and has some creative alternate hydro uses. Dams are built for many purposes, generating electricity is just one. However, it is weird that the vast amount of dams in the US do not generate electricity.

 

Wind is using flowing air to generate electricity. This video show how that works and has some pros and cons.

 

Let's get back to work. You should be done with research and ranking by now. Be sure to show me your ranking of all 9 to get checked off. After you show me, research much more deeply into your chosen three. Those should be your first choice, your second choice, and your ninth, or last, choice. You need a clear understanding on how all three work, and detailed descriptions of the pros and cons. Go deep!

 

We will talk about ways to share this information tomorrow.

 

HW - Rank all nine, research your chosen 3, if not done in class.

 

Wednesday 5/2/18

Understand how solar electricity is made, as well as some pros and cons

Finish researching the pros and cons of all 9 methods

Rank all 9 methods

 

Yesterday, we covered the basics on how 8 of our 9 methods work. While we will go deeper with all of them, let's get to the one we didn't talk about at all, Solar! Solar power does not use a turbine, but instead, the sunlight makes individual electrons a bit "jumpy" and they move. Recall what we learned before break, that electricity is just the flow of electrons from atom to atom. If enough of them are moving, you have a current. Here's a  video on how solar works.

 

Let's talk about some of the pros and cons, many of which came up in the video. Get out your tables and follow along. If I miss something, chime in. If you don't have something on your table, add it. We will also take a detour on to something called Solar Roadways. So cool.

 

OK, back to research. You should be finishing up your research the beginning of class today. As I said, finding 2-3 pros and 2-3 cons for each should be pretty quick research, so being done now is on track.

 

After you finishing researching, rank all 9 methods, from the 1st being your favorite to the the ninth being your least favorite. Now think about something big right here in Enosburg. Would your choices change at all? Re-arrange, if needed.

 

Once you have them ranked, you will go much deeper with your research on your 1st, 2nd and 9th choices. You will need to find our more than just a couple pros or cons, but really dig deep. In your project, you will need to address both pros and cons, whether it's your top choice or last choice, so you need to really understand. You will also need a clear understanding of how the 3 methods work. Take good notes and save your sources!

 

HW - Finish research and complete ranking, if still not done.

 

Tuesday 5/1/18

Fix MSS Energy

Begin to understand how electricity is made

Research the pros and cons of 2-3 methods

 

Right off the bat, I made a mistake in the My Science Standards for this unit, so let's fix that before we do anything else.

1) Open up for MSS - Energy doc.

2) Scroll down to the standards on page 4.

3) Go to the Evidence column heading, right at the top.

4) Copy and paste this text and paste it into the heading for the Evidence column.

 

EVIDENCE: (ANSWER ALL THREE) What is your evidence? How does it show your proficiency? What are ways or areas you could improve? Student fills out before meeting with Teacher

 

Next, let's take a look at how electricity is made. The main way is using a turbine to turn mechanical energy into electricity. 8 of the 9 methods we are looking at use this method. The way to turn the turbine changes for those 8 methods. Here is an overview of the whole process.

 

For the rest of today, keep going on the research you started yesterday. It should go pretty quickly for two reasons. One, the information is pretty easy to find. If you are really struggling to find it, come ask. The second is that you don't need to go very deep for now. You just need a general understanding of each, 2-3 pros and 2-3 cons for each. That way when you have completed the research, you can pick your 2 favorites and your least favorite and go much deeper with just those three. You should finish the research in class in the next couple of days. Be sure to keep track of your sources of information. You will need a bibliography later, so bookmark, copy links, or whatever will help you remember your sources. We will finish the research later in the week. I think the easiest way to organize this information is in some sort of table, like below. Make sure to make your boxes big enough to fit lots of facts.

 

Monday 4/30/18

Set up "My Science Standards" sheet for Energy

Go over LO1, a persuasive piece on a new electricity plant here in Enosburg

Begin to understand how electricity is made

 

For the first bit of class, we will start looking at the document we will use to keep track of our progress in this unit, the "My Science Standards." You will need to follow the directions below PRECISELY to do this correctly.

 

1) Click on the document.

 

2) You will need your own copy. To do that, click on the 3 dots in the upper right.

 

3) If it didn't do it automatically, open the document in Google Docs or in Google Drive.

 

4) Click on "Share and Export."

 

5) Then click on "Make a Copy."

 

6) You will now need to rename it. Hit the arrow in the upper left.

 

7) Then hit the three dots on the document "Copy of My Science Standards - Energy."

 

8) Then hit the rename button.

 

9) A box will open up to name it. Replace the words "Copy of" with your last name, so the name of mine would be "Rohlen My Science Standards - Energy."

 

10) Now, you will need to share it with specific people. Click on "Share" in the upper right. Share the document with me first, giving me editing privileges.

 

11) Next, share it with your TA teacher and your parents or guardians, but just give them commenting privileges. That's why you want to do that in 2 different steps.

 

***Be sure to give me editing privileges, and both your TA and parent/guardian commenting privileges.

 

12) Lastly, type your first and last name on the line in the document that says "Name:__________"

 

Your document is now all set to go! Take the last few minutes to look around on the document and see what is there. It's another big one, so lots to look at.

 

Next, we are going to go over electricity production. Everyone should research multiple ways that electricity is produced. Try to learn about at least 2-3 today.

 

There are many methods to produce electricity. We will look at nine. If you find another that you would like to add, feel free to do so. These are the nine methods for producing electricity that we are focusing on:

• Coal

• Natural Gas

• Nuclear fission

• Hydroelectric

• Biomass

• Solar

• Wind

• Geothermal

• Nuclear fusion (theoretical)

 

For each, research:

• How it works (written description and diagrams)

• Pro/advantages (why it's good)

• Con/disadvantages (why it's not so good)

• Actual examples (the more local, the better)

 

For today, pick 2-3 of the above, research and start taking notes on them. Be sure to keep track of your sources of information. You will need a bibliography later, so bookmark, copy links, or whatever will help you remember your sources. We will finish the research later in the week. I think the easiest way to organize this information is in some sort of table, like below (or download one here). Make sure to make your boxes big enough to fit lots of facts.

 

 

Power Source	How it works	Pros/ Advantages	Cons/ Disadvantages	Actual Examples
Coal
Natural Gas
Nuclear fission (Conventional)
Hydroelectric
Biomass
Solar
Wind
Geothermal
Nuclear fusion (theoretical)